This Wednesday’s Council of State meeting on European funds, with the participation of European Commissioner Elisa Ferreira as a guest, started at 11:10 am at the Palácio da Cidadela in Cascais, with five absences.
Former Head of State Aníbal Cavaco Silva, the President of the Regional Government of Madeira, Miguel Albuquerque, the President of the Constitutional Court, João Caupers, and Councilors António Damásio and Carlos César did not participate in the meetingsaid a source from the presidency of the republic.
The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, convened his political advisory body to analyze European funds in Portugal and, the day before, invited European Commissioner Elisa Ferreira, who holds the Cohesion and Reforms portfolio, to participate in this meeting .
The Minister of the Presidency, Mariana Vieira da Silva, responsible for coordinating the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), is also present at the meeting.
In the current economic climate, the President of the Republic has reaffirmed the message that the government should not waste European resources, focusing on the PRR, and has chosen 2023 as the “decisive year”, taking into account the election cycle until 2026 : European, municipal, presidential and legislative.
This is the 28th meeting of the Council of State chaired by Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa since he took office as President of the Republic in March 2016.
The previous one took place three and a half months ago, on 13 December, and was devoted to the enlargement process and the European Union’s financial and economic reforms.
As President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa innovated by inviting domestic and foreign personalities to the meetings of his political consultative body and making them more frequent.
The former President of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, the Secretary General of the United Nations (UN), António Guterres, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the Secretary General of the Council of State have al participated in meetings of the Council of State, including NATO General Jens Stoltenberg.
This body, which is chaired by the President of the Republic, has as its inherent members the holders of the offices of President of the Assembly of the Republic, Prime Minister, President of the Constitutional Court, Ombudsman, Presidents of regional governments and former Presidents of the republic.
Under the Constitution, it also includes five citizens designated by the Head of State for the period corresponding to the term of office, and five elected by the Assembly of the Republic, in accordance with the principle of proportional representation, for the period corresponding with the duration of the legislature.
At the start of his second term, in March 2021, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa appointed the writer Lídia Jorge as Councilor of State and reappointed four councillors: former CDS-PP leader António Lobo Xavier, former PSD president Luís Marques Mendes, the president of the Champalimaud Foundation, Leonor Beleza and the neuroscientist António Damásio.
After the parliamentary elections in January 2022, the Assembly of the Republic in turn elected Carlos César, Manuel Alegre and António Sampaio da Nóvoa, nominated by the PS, and Francisco Pinto Balsemão and Miguel Cadilhe, nominated by the PSD, for the Council of State. .
Source: DN
